Camilla patted her belly. "Not in front of my son if you please."
"I want you to remarry, Kim" Jazz continued, ignoring them. "I mean, I'm happy for all the rolls in the hay life dishes out—"
"—I think we've used that phrase enough," Robin interjected.
"Not necessarily," Jazz said. "I've rolled with the best of them."
"You've been a rolling stone and you've liked it," Robin said.
"I went rolling on the river," Jazz responded.
"You're rolling in the deep," Robin said.
"Now I think we're done," Jazz said.
They all agreed.
"I guess there's only one option left," Robin said. "We all chip in on a Play Station and Kim marries Oliver."
"I"m fine all by myself," Kim said. "This was all your idea."
"No you're not," Jazz said. "Robin and I are happily single. Camilla's happily married."
"—Not with my swollen ankles, I'm not," Camilla said.
"Oh, hush," Robin said. "This is serious. We've run out of eligible bachelors to sic on Kim."
"Don't hush me, girlfriend. I've got the solution. And it doesn't involve investing in any video games."
Camilla sat up straight in her chair, which was a feat in itself, and took a piece of paper out of her purse. She waved the paper at them. "I have in my possession a nice, attractive, successful single guy."
"Where have you been hiding him?" Robin asked. "I could use one too, you know."
"Kim gets first dibs."
Robin nodded. "Just this once, I'll be magnanimous. Okay, so tell us about him."
"He's a new client of mine. Owns a coffee shop up the coast and was referred to me by another client. So he's not quite local, but he does come down here to surf on the weekends."
They all looked at Kim.
"And," Camilla continued, "he misses home cooking."'
"We'll buy him a cookbook," Kim said.
"No, you'll cook him dinner. Something nice." She smiled at Kim. "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach and all that."
Kim laid her head back against the chair. "All right. Once more into the breach."
~*~
On Friday morning she was in the grocery store shopping for the big dinner that night. She stopped in the snack food aisle to get doughnuts for Gage to have on Saturday.
"Hey, nice lady. Lookin' for some munchies?" Hector from the garage grinned at her with that half-vacant but very friendly smile. He handed her a bag of chips.
"No, thanks, Hector. I'm going to be making a steak dinner."
"Woah. That's heavy."
"Not so much, Hector. Be seeing you." She smiled and rounded the corner, only to bump into the five-year-old Kelly twins, Nick and Noël.
The two pairs of dark eyes stared up at her worriedly. "We didn't do nothin'."
She bent down to them. "It's okay. I know you didn't." The little ones still hadn't learned to trust. But she knew their foster parents Gavin and Ava were working hard to teach them how.
"Hey, Kim," Ava said. She was at the meat counter picking up the makings for burgers. "How's the house coming along?"
"Great. It's slow because Gage has to fit it in between his other job, but it's all turning out well."
The butcher interrupted to ask Kim what she needed. "Um, I'm making dinner to impress a guy, so I thought maybe steak?"
"You're paying him back with dinner?" Ava asked. "I knew he'd get up the nerve to come clean to you eventually."
"Paying him back?"
"I told him he should just tell you he was working for you for free, but you know how he is. He didn't want you to feel obligated."
"Gage?" Kim said.
"Yeah. I'm glad he finally came clean to you. I've been trying to get him to admit his crush for months. I told him you must know how he feels for you, but he wasn't sure and didn't want to put you on the spot."
"How he feels?"
Kim's shock must have finally gotten through to Ava. "You didn't know? Did I say something wrong?"
Kim gave her a big hug, but she still looked worried. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."
"Uncomfortable?" Kim shook her head. "Exactly the opposite. I feel more comfortable than I have in weeks."
Ava started to question her more, but Kim just pointed to the end cap of the canned food section. "You're about to be responsible for a dozen broken jars of pickled beets," she said and Ava ran down the aisle after her kids.
Kim turned back to the ever-patient man behind the counter. "What I need, Mr. Santos, is two of your best steaks for a very special dinner."
~*~
Gage was there at seven p.m. in answer to her call.
"So what's the emergency?" he asked as he came in the door.
"Come on in," she said, and he did.
"Wow," he said, looking her over.
She smoothed down Robin's brown cashmere sweater over her jeans. "Do I look okay?"
"Yeah. Definitely. But you always do." He sniffed the air. "Steak?"
She nodded. "Steak, baked potatoes, and a big green salad. For two."'
"Oh, wow," he said awkwardly. "I'm in the way. You said the tub wasn't draining properly? I'll fix it and get going so you can get on with your date."
She motioned for him to follow her into the kitchen.
The kitchen table set with her best dishes, two place settings. She handed him matches and pointed to the candles. "Do you mind lighting 'em?"
He shook his head.
She opened the oven door to check on the steaks. They were done. She turned off the oven and left them in to keep warm.
She straightened up and glanced over at him. He just stood by the table, holding the matches and looking really miserable.
"They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, right?"
Gage swallowed hard. "He's a lucky guy."
She grinned at him. "Yes, you are."
He looked at her, confused. Then the light dawned.
"Close your mouth and sit down," she said. "Then start explaining why you never told me how you felt."
He sat down. "Um, well." He fidgeted with the book of matches, tapping them on the tablecloth, shifting them from hand to hand.
Finally she took them from him and lit the candles herself. She blew out the match. "Talk," she said. "When I told you I was going to start dating again, why didn't you ask me out?"
"During the split second between you telling me you were going to start going out with guys and the time Jazz fixed you up?"
"Yeah, somewhere in there."
She sat down at the table opposite him and held her hand out to him. He took it.
"Did you think I wouldn't have stopped and listened if you told me how you felt?"
"I just couldn't find the right time. At first you were grieving, and you just needed a friend. Then afterwards, your friends had you dating everybody in town except me." He frowned. "And why didn't they fix me up with you? Don't I qualify as an eligible bachelor?"
"You? Mr. I'm-Not-Serious-About-Anyone?"
"I'm serious about you," he said simply.
"I thought you weren't interested in settling down. Everybody thought that. So why haven't you?"
"How could I get married when the woman I loved was married to my best friend?"
She sat back in the chair with a loud creak of the old wood. "Wow. I never knew."
He looked embarrassed. "Of course not. You and Bryce were happy. I couldn't say anything. I was happy the two of you had each other. I wouldn't have wished for you to lose him for anything."
"I know that. But when he died you still kept your mouth shut?"
"I couldn't hit on you when you were in pain. You needed me to be a friend, not to put pressure on you."
"And you were a friend." She thought about the last few months. "You did everything you could to help me through it."
He leaned forward and took her hand again. "I never wanted to rush you. But suddenly there you were, looking fo
r someone, and I was invisible."
"You were there all the time. And I was too dense to realize it." She got up and came around the table to stand in front of him. She held his head in her hands, noticing the dark curls, the hazel eyes, the deep laugh lines in his face, the roughness of the dark stubble on his cheeks. How could she have not noticed him? She bent down and kissed him softly, just brushing his lips with hers, trying it out to see how it felt. It felt right. Totally right. Like losing everything and then finding a new home waiting for you, its door wide open, beckoning you to enter.
"You were right there, all along," she whispered.
"Just waiting for you to be ready."
"I'm ready now."
"Yeah." He pulled her onto his lap and kissed her, his arms resting gently around her waist, holding her safe and warm.
She came up for air and smelled the steak. "So how about dinner?" she asked, her voice raw with emotion—joy, sadness, some combination of both.
"Dinner," he said dreamily. "I guess we could do that. But didn't you call me because you needed something repaired first?"
"You can always fix the tub. You'll be around for a long time."
"A lifetime," he said, and kissed her again.
~*~
The End.
~*~
If you enjoyed this little taste of life in Pajaro Bay, you may want to read the first novel in the Pajaro Bay series, The Honeymoon Cottage. Readers have called it a "magnificent read!" with "excellent characterization." They praised it as "adorable, lively and like a warm hug," with a "well-developed plot" and a "surprise ending."
Learn more about The Honeymoon Cottage at: http://barbaracoollee.com/?page_id=790
~*~
Every Pajaro Bay story includes a recipe. The recipe for Home Improvement is:
Robin's Healthier-But-Still-Indulgent Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
Mix 1/2 cup real butter, 1/2 cup mashed avocado, 3/4 cup sugar, and 3/4 cup brown sugar with electric mixer until smooth.
Add 2 eggs, 2 teaspoons vanilla, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon baking soda, and mix in thoroughly.
Add 2 and 1/4 cups King Arthur Organic White Whole Wheat Flour and mix until smooth.
Add 1 cup Ghiradelli Milk Chocolate Chips and mix by hand until blended in.
Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake in 375 degree oven for ten minutes. Take out and let sit on pan for 5 minutes to set, then remove with spatula and let cool until you can't stand waiting anymore and you have to eat them. Don't burn your mouth on the melted chocolate.
~*~
Home Improvement (A Pajaro Bay Short Story) Page 3
